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I had been riding fuel bikes for years... had my pilots card for AMRA and HDRMA... But I was riding for another guy who owned the bikes. No cash, no trophies, just the thrill of winning, which I occasionally did. I watched the mechanic who worked on the owners bikes meticulously between heats until I though I was smart enough to build my own big block. I figured I'd build my own bike and get the money and the trophys for myself. Guess what... uh uh. 12 grand on parts for a motor that were useless about 2 seconds after I fired it up.

Shortly after that I went down at 160 MPH on a brand new squirrely slick on one of his bikes. I was slinging my hips left and right trying to keep it up, but that damn slick was not cooperating. The faster I got, the more it jerked around. Finally she beat me, and the bike went down. I hit the asphalt fine, right on my ass and went into a slide instead of a tumble, which my leathers protected my flesh from. I just sort of laid back and figured I'd ride it out until I stopped. All looked good until the bike started spinning and the wheelie bar smacked me in the back of the head and broke my C2 and C3 vertabrae. That pretty much ended my desire for drag racing fuel bikes.

Yeah, racing is fun. I hate to see the kids out on their crotch rockets racing each other in the streets though. Take it to the track.

My best run ever was 186 MPH in 6.7 seconds on a 1/4 mile track. It's good they had a half mile of runway at the end of it, or I never would have got her stopped. I loved the thrill back in the days I did it, but I don't miss it now at all.

I might go to the track ocasionally and run my street bike just for the fun of being able to run it wide open, but you won't see me on monster machines ever again. There's a saying something like youth doesn't understand the difference between danger and reward. An 18 year old will throw himself into combat not understanding the danger. He just wants the reward for killing the enemy. You don't see the 40 year olds toting a rifle into combat zone. They've developed that understanding of what danger is. I'm 48 now and have fully come to understand the difference between risk and reward.

I still love going fast, but now it's reserved to NASCAR race cars occasionally, but that's just fun, no competition. It's hard to get hurt when you're the only guy on the track at Talledega. Pushing 180 there is no problem whatsoever with nobody to run into. And if you do run into a wall, you've got a cage around you and safety harnesses. You won't catch me at 180 on a bike ever again. Not in this lifetime at least.

Mutsta been a bad day. I can feel the disappointment. I do my best. When I get in trouble I step back and wait until I get a few suggestions from some of the old skool riders in the area. So far so good. But all this modern stuff is nothing like what I know.

Right. I haven't had any time to tinker with it so far. This is festival season in my tourist town and I'm spending all my time pumping out banners and yard signs and decals that I haven't even had time to think about the bike. The wife's got minor surgery tomorrow (today depending on your perspective) which I have to be there for because she won't be allowed to drive after it's over. No big deal, don't worry about her. They just have to knock her out and it takes several hours for the anethesia to wear off. Hopefully I can get caught up on work and get this bike tuned up for the summer. I've decided against replacing the carb. Just going to replace the plugs and tune the existing carb.